You Can't Kill Heroes
by Troublemaker-In-Chief
Summary: The Carrows have taken over Hogwarts and turned it into a place of torture. After hitting his head on a desk, Ernie has an epiphany, one that can spread hope among the students and cause trouble with the Death Eaters. Loyalty is a powerful thing.
1. Guinea Pig

**Author's note: This story takes place during Deathly Hallows. Its about Dumbledore's Army after Hogwarts had been taken over by the Carrow; trying to rebel, trying to survive, trying to spread hope, and holding onto the one thing the Carrows can't take from them. It was slightly inspired by ****Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness**** by ThanFiction. Reviws would be greatly appreciated. They are my crack.**

* * *

_In this dream that I had…_

_"You can't kill heroes," that's what we said to them_

_"You can't kill us"_

_With our instruments broken before us_

_And the boys in the line, they begin to count to five_

_And the trigger pulls_

_The bullets pepper the brick wall behind our heads_

_And the smoke, it fills the air_

_The captain yells to cease fire_

_And the squad begins to wait and stare_

_As the dust clears the air, and we're still standing_

_With smiles on both our faces_

_We spit their faulty ammo to the ground_

_And remind them once again that you can't kill heroes_

- _You Can't Kill Heroes_ by the Spill Canvas

* * *

"Muggles are filthy, nasty human beings, if you can even call them human." Alecto struck the blackboard with her wand. Instantaneously the words she had written evaporated into the blackness, making more room for new ones that she would soon write.

_Look who's talking! _thought Ernie Macmillan angrily as he gripped the edge of his desk. Muggle Studies had become no more than Muggle Bashing and going over the best techniques on how to torture Muggles. _You're a filthy, nasty human being, you slimy git. If anyone could mistake _you_ for a human, that is. Because if I ran into you in a dark-alley, I'd have trouble telling you apart from a flobberworm. A sickeningly bony flobberworm._

Alecto's skin was taut over her cheekbones as her lips curled into a horrible grin, and she was positively glowing. This class of Seventh Years knew that when Alecto's skin was warm and glowing like that, when she had a spring to her step like that, when her lips made that animal-like snarl, she was delighted about something. And they also knew that Alecto Carrow was never delighted over things that normal people would be delighted by.

Ernie exchanged nervous looks with Neville Longbottom, Terry Boot, and Seamus Finnigan, all who were sitting in the front row with him. Those who had the unfortune to get stuck sitting in the front row were often chosen for crude demonstrations or test-subjects for painful spells used to harm muggles. Ernie thought it was downright ridiculous that anyone would invent spells for torturing muggles specifically. Muggles and Magic-folk alike were human beings, with flesh, bone and nerves. Spells used for torturing witches and wizards would suffice for muggles as well. Thinking up spells that would only hurt muggles, as if they had a different anatomy completely, was just ludicrous,

But ludicrous was Alecto Carrow's style.

"There's a new hex I'm going to be teaching you today. Its meant to be used on muggles, but I'm sure it'll work on children with magic blood, if I want it to. Its a personal favorite of mine, actually. Any volunteers?" She grinned cruelly at the class.

No one raised their hands.

"Tut, tut. How will any of you pass this class without participating, you stupid children? I guess I'll just," she glared pointedly at the front row. "choose some people from the front."

Ernie looked over at Hannah Abbott, who was in the second row, to see what her reaction to this would be. The second row wasn't as dangerous as the first, but it still couldn't be considered safe. Hannah's eye was already swollen after taking a punch from Pansy Parkinson during lunch. The Carrows, who usually made their hatred of muggle-fighting very clear, made an elaborate show of whistling and not paying attention as this happened. Apparently muggle-fighting was okay as long as the Slytherins were doing it.

Poor Hannah had already gotten a lot of pain today. According to Padma Patil, Pansy's punch cracked one of Hannah's teeth, and she wasn't even allowed to go to the hospital wing. What would happen if Alecto called on Hannah to be a guinea pig of her little hex? Would Hannah be able to stand the pain?

Or how about Michael Corner, who was Cruciated during Dark Arts just for sneezing while Amycus was talking and was now sporting three long cuts that made it look like someone raked his face open? Or how about Neville who refused to put the Cruciatus curse on a first-year so instead was forced to have Crabbe and Goyle put it on him? The left side of his face was green and purple with not-yet healed bruises from bashing his head off the side off the floor when he collapsed.

Any one of them could be called on. Even Ernie himself. His heart was hammering, his stomach uneasy. He had been pretty hungry and eager to go to dinner a few minutes ago. Now he couldn't stand to think of food. He felt like he was going to be violently ill.

Alecto's eyes scanned the room for a victim. Hannah shrank down in her seat. Seamus hung his head. Neville gripped the underside of his chair. Susan Bones had little color left in her usually-rosy cheeks. Michael Corner looked as sick as Ernie felt.

"Miss Brown."

There were collective sighs of relief mingled with gasps of shock throughout the room. Lavender Brown, sitting at the back of the room, whimpered in terror and dug her long nails into the side of the desk. Alecto hardly ever called on students at the back. Everyone thought the back of the room was safe, that only students at the front were called on. Alecto had probably realized this and had decided to change things up a bit just to rub it in everyone's faces just how safe they truly weren't.

You couldn't be sure of anything these days, not even where the best place there is to sit in class if you don't want to be used as a demonstration of some painful curse, and Alecto wanted them all to know. Calling on a student from the back row was her way of saying, "you've got no place to hide."

Lavender closed her eyes in silent prayer. She had no choice. She was expected to stand up and walk to the front of the room. She couldn't just sit there or it would make Alecto angry, and Alecto's curses were particularly nastier when she was angry.

What made all of this worse was that nobody knew what this mysterious hex was. Everyone fears the unknown, of course, its human nature. But if you know for a fact that the unknown is something terrible, it triples the fear to a point where its almost maddening. And nothing good could possibly come out of this hex that Alecto was about to perform on Lavender. She was the gerbil, Alecto was the mad scientist, and everyone else had to sit back and watch.

Lavender rose to her feet with wobbling legs. She was visibly shaking as she passed down the aisle between the desks toward Alecto, who was impatiently tapping her booted foot against the floor.

Everyone wanted to do something but they also knew there was nothing they _could_ do, even if they weren't afraid of whatever punishments they'd get for it. There was nothing they could do to help Lavender. Trying to interfere would only end up getting them hexed as well. It wasn't as if they knew the countercurse to what Alecto had up her sleeve, because how could you know a countercurse when you don't even know the curse?

"Good girl." Alecto smirked as Lavender stood before her. The words were cold and patronizing. "Now hold still."

_"Pulmonarius Agonia!"_

With a slash of Alecto's wand, Lavender was on her knees. No one knew exactly what was happening at first. Lavender looked fine for the first few seconds. She looked a little shaken, a little bit anxious, but other than that nothing seemed to be very wrong.

Until her hands came to her throat and she made sickening wheezing sounds.

She gasped for air in a rattling breath, but it didn't appear to do her any good. She gasped again. And again. And again and again and again until tears poured from her glistening blue eyes and breathless sobs shook her shoulders. She couldn't breathe.

Her lips formed words but no sound came out. Ernie tried as hard as he could to read her lips and see what she was trying to say...

_Help me, help me, help me._

Ernie and Neville rose from their seats at the same time, both having just figured out what Lavender's soundless mouth was trying to tell them.

Lavender's attempt to speak made nothing but little squeaks and gurgles at the back of her throat. Blood mixed with saliva dripped from her lips onto the stone floor. She clutched her throat desperately, still mouthing the words, _Help me please help me._

Then her shoulders spasmed. Her back arched forward. Her mouth stretched open in a silent scream, her eyes flashing with raw pain that was pushing her past the limits of what was bearable. Her arms dropped to her side. Her entire body went rigidly stiff before falling sideways onto the floor.

Then she was still.

There was a terrible shiver of silence throughout the room, before there were shouts of anger and screams of horror. Neville shot a hex at Alecto which she quickly deflected.

"Mr. Longbottom, are you trying to hex me? Perhaps you'd like the same as Miss Brown?" Alecto rounded on Neville. "_Pulmonarius ---" _

_"EXPELLIARMUS!" _Terry jumped from his chair and slashed his wand at Alecto.

The wand was torn from her hands. It spun through the air, narrowly missing Seamus' head, before hitting the floor.

There was silence again. A heavy, pregnant silence. Ernie's pulse was roaring in his ears, the quiet of the room pressing in on him. There was nothing but the sound of Terry's heavy breathing and a few girls' terrified whimpers. Neville's eyes were bulging out of his head - his face mingled with relief and fear. He was clearly glad that Alecto didn't get the chance to perform the hex on him, but his mind was most definitely reeling at how Terry would most likely be punished for disarming her.

No one dared move.

Alecto looked murderous but she stood completely still. Her eyes looked from her wand on the floor, to Terry's wand still outstretched in his hand as if he wasn't sure how to drop it, to the faces of each and every one of them. Then she picked up her wand, turning it over thoughtfully in her hands. Ernie's heart felt like it was going to break through his chest, it was pumping so hard.

Finally, Alecto spoke, a grin playing at her dry lips.

"Mr. Boot," she paused to glare at Terry, "will point his wand at Mr. Longbottom, and say _'pulmonarius agonia'_ in a clear, strong voice, as punishment for disarming me when I'm trying to teach another student a lesson."

"No!" Terry shouted. "I won't do - do - _that_" he gestured wildly at Lavender's limp body. "to a friend!"

"Don't you want your poor friend to learn his lesson? It is my duty to teach you rotten children, a task that is starting to feel impossible. I was trying to do my job, to discipline Mr. Longbottom so he won't make such foolish mistakes in the future, but it seems to me like you don't want your friend to learn. He has to learn not to act deluded and disrespectful. And now, as your punishment for trying to stop me from teaching your friend a lesson, you will be the one to do it to him."

"You're the deluded one, you hag!" Terry yelled. "I won't do it!"

Whatever patience Alecto had left finally snapped.

"You will do it, you will do it until I allow you to stop, or until your friend dies - whichever comes first!" She shrieked.

They knew this was a bluff. It was common knowledge in the D.A. -- if not the entire school -- that the Carrows would not kill because You-Know-Who himself told them that it was a waste of Magic-blood, and that they were allowed to torture but not to kill. Terry was about to call her out on this bluff, until she dropped the bombshell:

"You'll do it, or else I will not allow Miss Brown to be taken to the hospital wing, and she can lay there curled up on the floor in extreme pain as her lungs suffocate themselves, which will eventually lead to severe brain-damage."

Terry's wand shook in his hand. All eyes were on Lavender's unmoving form, Neville's terrified face, and the war of emotions that was evident on Terry's. His eyes were brimming with angry tears as he looked back and forth from Neville to Lavender.

"Just do it," Neville whispered, his eyes pleading. "Just do it and get Lavender out of here, Terry. I promise, I don't mind. It'll be over soon enough. You need to get Lavender out of here."

Terry looked uncertain. His eyes darted back to Lavender before they found Neville's again. When Terry finally spoke, his voice was hoarse, his eyes apologetic:

"_Pulmonarius agonia."_

It was almost dinner time, this was the last class of the day. That meant Alecto had taught many other classes before them, ones with younger students. Had she used this same hex on the younger students earlier, or was it something she was only showing them?

Was this the first time that day she was using the hex, or did she choose a guinea pig from the sixth-years too? Hell, she was evil enough to try it on the first years. Ernie almost wanted to raise his hand and ask, to confirm his suspicions, but he really didn't want to know. He was feeling like he was going to lose his lunch enough already.

But if she _had_ chosen a sixth-year to try it on, who had it been? Optimistic, naive Colin? Feisty but fun Ginny?

Neville's face was tinged with purple as he gasped for air to no prevail, but he was taking it better than Lavender, probably because he had expected it, unlike Lavender who had no idea what was going to happen to her. Neville didn't beg for someone to help him, either, although he looked like he wanted to. His eyes were bulging. His throat was making disgusting gurgling sounds that Ernie suspected was blood and saliva. He kept imagining younger students in Neville's place, gasping and writhing in pain on the floor, and those thoughts made the situation so many times worse.

The world felt like it had been knocked off its axis as the cold realization of what was actually happening hit him: students were being _tortured_. Right there in front of him. This was Hogwarts and students were being tortured. Hadn't there been a time when the idea of a student being tortured during class would seem ridiculous, even laughable? Now it was cold reality.

Pain and suffering were not unheard of at Hogwarts these days, it was becoming a usual thing now. They had become so used to it that they were almost starting to accept it as normal.

As Neville's back spasmed and tears silently made their way down Terry's face, the thought occurred to Ernie: _This is not normal. This cannot be normal._

The room whirled in front of him. Colors bled together. He felt like he was seeing everything from the end of a long tunnel. Neville's strangled gasps sounded distant now. His head swam, shapes distorted, it all slipped away.

Ernie's head hit the desk and several students screamed. His last conscious thought was: _This is no longer Hogwarts. This is Hell._


	2. Epiphany

The harsh November wind was roaring and lashing at the castle windows. Fortunately for the D.A., the Room of Requirement seemed to know this and got rid of the windows inside the room, replacing them with warm fireplaces and warm armchairs. Ernie found himself lying on his back, a circle of faces looking down at him from above. The room slid in and out of focus for a few moments, but finally the edges sharpened and he was able to see detail instead of just blurry blobs. He recognized the faces.

"Seamus, Hannah, Michael -" he started rattling off the names of everyone he saw as he forced himself to sit up. A part of him was embarrassed at being in such an undignified position on the floor, but he had other pressing matters to worry about. "Where's - where's Neville...Lavender..."

"Hospital wing." Romilda Vane said, nervously tucking a strand of dark hair behind her ear. "Madam Pomfrey says they should be okay by tonight. We got them there before they could get" she shifted her weight uncomfortably. "well, brain-damaged."

"Madam Pomfrey threw a fit when she found out what happened. She was yelling about damaged lungs and internal bleeding, and wouldn't calm down until McGonagall, Flitwick and Slughorn all came in. If they hadn't, she probably would have went out and hexed the Carrows into next week." Michael said.

"Professor McGonagall didn't look like she _wanted_ to calm Madam Pomfrey down, though. She looked like she wanted to do some hexing herself." Ginny added.

"McGonagall went out and yelled at Amycus in the corridor. He told her to mind her damn business." Seamus clenched his fist. "I'll hex him one day, I will. Turn him into a wee cockroach then grind my heel into his slimy, foul body, I'm telling you now!"

Susan placed a hand on his shoulder soothingly. As he looked around at all of the familiar faces - Seamus, Parvati Patil, Padma Patil, Hannah, Michael, Romilda Vane, Susan, Ginny, Luna Lovegood and several others - he realized who he was forgetting."

"Terry!" Ernie exclaimed. "Where's Terry, is he alright?"

Everyone exchanged a look over his head, a look that said: _Oh, boy, we have to break it to him._

"Ernie, mate," Michael put a hand on his shoulder. "Terry...he's upset."

"Badly upset." Ginny nodded. "He's hiding away in the dormitory and refuses to come out."

"He feels like what happened is his fault." Seamus sighed. "It's not his fault! Its that hag's!"

"One day, that son of a goblin will get what's coming to her." Ernie said. The words surprised him as much as they surprised everyone else. He didn't remember planning on saying it, the words just tumbled out. But he meant them. He wasn't used to saying such malicious things, but it felt good to let it out.

"Amycus, too." Seamus agreed. "They all will."

"Let's all hope Harry kills You-Know-Who soon." Hannah said. "But in the meantime, we should keep writing his name all over the place. We may not be able to do too much to them, but if anything drives them up the wall, its Harry's name."

"At least we have that one power." Romilda''s eyes lightened a bit. "The power to scare them with our loyalty."

"Its true." Ernie said. "Our loyalty to Harry, Ron, Hermione and the Order of the Phoenix _terrifies_ them. They used to drop hints about what a menace Harry is and how the Order must be stopped, but once they saw how much we support them..." he grinned wickedly. "...its like they don't even bother trying to turn us against Harry anymore. They know they can't. They know that they can Cruciate us, they can hit us, they can use us as little experiments for new hexes...but our loyalty is something they can't touch. And our friendship, our fond memories of Harry, Ron and Hermione, our throwbacks about the good old days before the war started...they can't hurt us there. And they know it. It scares them. They don't understand what loyalty is, what true friendship is."

A heavy silence fell upon them as Ernie's unexpected, inspirational words sunk in. The truth of them was strange, and a little exciting. Ernie realized for the first time that they _did_ have something left the Carrows couldn't take away: their loyalty and friendship.

"That's why they get so panicked whenever they try to say something against Harry, and instead of agreeing with them on what a menace Harry is, we'll all start talking about the time he won the Quidditch Cup for Gryffindor..." Ernie continued. "That was actually a really good day for everyone...except for the Slytherins, of course. We Hufflepuffs were all so excited that Slytherin didn't win, we couldn't care less that it was Gryffindor that won and not Hufflepuff." Ernie stopped, his mind and heart racing with a newfound confidence as he realized something he wished he realized on the first day of school. "And remember the old D.A., back when Umbridge took over? She put up all those new decrees, all of those restrictions, all of those harsh punishments...and still, we kept meeting back in this very room. We didn't let her stop us because we were determined, and we knew something that everyone else didn't: You-Know-Who was back.

"Its the same as now, if you think about it. Yes, its so much worse now. Its torture, its inhuman, its hell, its far more cruel than anything Umbridge could ever dream of - but its still not so much different than it was in our fifth year." Ernie, for once, wasn't choosing his words carefully before he spoke them. He didn't care if he sounded stupid or if it wasn't grammatically correct. All of the racing thoughts in his head spilled out into words, filling the room with a sense of hope. "Somebody is in our school, changing it, ruining it - but we all have each other, and we have this room. This room is still our haven. And we know something other people don't know: Harry won't fail."

His last words hung in the air. Silence descended upon all of them for about the tenth time that day, but it was a different kind of silence than the others. It wasn't the silence of impending disaster, the quiet that falls as you cringe and wait for the blow. It was the silence of an epiphany shared by everyone in the room. Ernie wasn't a Legilimens but he knew what he said was making sense to them. He could tell from the sudden light in their eyes, the way all of their chins lifted up a fraction of an inch.

"We have about thirty members in the D.A. right now - mostly everyone leftover from the old D.A. with a few new recruits thrown in. So most of us here in this room have met Harry, or know him personally." Ernie looked at Ginny as he said this, who surprisingly didn't blush or look away. She matched his hard gaze with one of her own, and it only encouraged him to keep going. "And we know he isn't a menace to society. We _certainly_ know he didn't kill Dumbledore" scowls of rage from just about everyone in the room at this. "and we don't think of him as some perfect, invincible cardboard-cutout in which we fill in the blanks with whatever we want him to be." Ernie looked uncertainly at Colin as he said this part, hoping it was true for him as well. Colin was sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of him with wide, fascinated eyes. "We know him as a real person, as our fellow classmate, as our friend. And if we look back at everything he's done so far, remember who he is as a person, how brave he is - then I think we all know somewhere inside that Harry will make it.

"But he's going to need support. He's going to need people who believe in him. And just the thirty of us isn't going to be enough. We have to get other people to support him. I'm sure there are dozens of others in the school who do, but they're too afraid to come out with it - maybe they think they'll be punished by the Carrows, or maybe they're afraid everyone will think they're crazy if they just stand up and say 'Hey, I think Harry Potter can save us.' That's why we have to encourage them to do that. And then there's the dozens of others who _don't_ know what Harry's really like, so they'll either think he won't save us, or they'll think he's as bad as the _Daily Prophet_'s been saying he is. That's why we have to _show_ them who he is.

"Just writing 'Support Harry Potter' all over the place isn't going to do much more than piss off the Carrows and Snape. We need to make people believe in Harry. And not just so Harry will have the support he deserves - we can also spread hope. We can give this school the hope it so desperately needs. The Carrows have turned this school into a torture chamber. They've changed all our classes. But our classes were never what made Hogwarts what it is. Our unity and loyalty make it what it is.

"Everybody forgot that. I know because I forgot it too. But I know now that if we remind everyone what Hogwarts is all about, if we just remind them about the unity and trust we felt with each other not more than a year ago, we can make things better. We as students can't get rid of the Carrows, and we can't make everything perfect, but we can make things better. We can't make Hogwarts feel safe, but we can make it feel a little bit safer. And we may not be able to stop the Carrows from torturing, but we can remind them that this school is ours, and they're only temporary. Dumbledore's Army needs to have more meaning to it than just writing Harry's name on the walls - and I think I may have just found that meaning. So are you guys with me?"

Everyone stared. Ernie's chest heaved with every deep breath he took. His head no longer felt swollen. His vision was no longer blurry. In fact, he felt as if he hadn't been knocked out at all. He was ready to get up and skip around the castle. Because he had a purpose now. He finally found that one silver lining inside this storm. Collapsing and hitting his head on the desk really knocked some genius into him.

All of their eyes were bulging in shock as the words of his long speech sunk into their heads. For a moment, he was worried that they wouldn't think it was a good idea, that he was out of his mind, that he ought to lie down for a little while more. He desperately hoped that wouldn't be the case.

Seamus whistled. "You hit your head, and suddenly you're Gandhi."

Ernie tried to figure out if that was a '_yes, I'm in'_ or _'no, you're out of your bloody mind.'_

Finally, Seamus grinned and said, "But you ought to hit your head more often. That's bloody brilliant and makes perfect sense. Did angels sing to you when you blacked out, mate? Did they give you this amazing idea?"

Ernie grinned as Seamus clapped him on the shoulder. He looked over at Ginny and was surprised to see her eyes brimming with tears, a smile on her lips. Behind her sat Luna, staring at him dreamily. To the right of Luna was Parvati and Padma, both smiling. Everywhere he looked he saw ecstatic faces, overjoyed with this sudden epiphany of his.

"So everyone is in on this?" Ernie asked. "Recruiting new members and showing people who Harry really is? Showing people that he can do this?"

Everyone nodded, grins and bright eyes all around.

_Why didn't I think of this sooner?_ he wondered.


	3. Planning

"Just one problem." Michael said, trying to suppress a laugh. "Could you repeat all that for Neville and Lavender when they're out of the hospital wing, and Terry when he finally stops holing himself up in the dormitory? I haven't got a quill on me, and I can't remember everything you just said, but I know it was bloody inspirational. I'd try telling it to them all myself, but I don't think it will come out quite that inspirationally."

"No need," a voice said. "We've been standing here in the doorway the whole time. If we were the Carrows, you'd have been hexed into oblivion by now."

All head snapped toward the doorway where Neville, Lavender and Terry stood. Ernie noticed that Neville's injuries had been all patched up by Madam Pomfrey, and Lavender actually looked better than she looked before the thing in Muggle Studies happened. He wondered with a surge of self-pride if it was because of the speech he just made. His cheeks flushed.

Terry stood nervously behind Neville, like he felt as if he shouldn't be there.

"Get in here, Terry!" Seamus called. "And stop looking so guilty. Someone ought to give you an Order of Harry, 2nd class, for what you did in Muggle Studies, 'cause that was definitely something Harry would have done."

They all burst into laughter at this and all of the tension they felt in the past few months melted away with each gasp of breath and every stitch in their side. Ernie clutched his stomach, throwing his head back and laughing so hard he felt like he might never stop. Luna's laugh was loudest of all, but it wasn't annoying. In fact, Ernie rather liked it. Warmth spread throughout his entire body as if he had downed a bottle of firewhiskey.

"Holing yourself up in your room, brooding, and blaming yourself for things that aren't your fault are also things Harry would have done." Ginny grinned, wiping the tears from her eyes. Her ears were bright red and she was happier than he had seen her in a very long time. "Somebody better change that Order of Harry to 1st Class."

Terry finally smiled and shuffled forward into the room. Michael gave him a man-hug; the handshake that transitions into a brief hug, lasting no more than one second, followed by a pat on the back. His face was stiff and raw with dried tears. Ernie could see red blotches on his cheekbones where he must have dug his fingers into his skin. He must have really beaten himself up over it.

"So let's do this!" Ernie was excited. He jumped to his feet so suddenly everyone close to him flinched back in surprise. "Tonight! We've got no time to waste!"

"As much as I'd love to, mate, what exactly are we doing?" Michael scratched his head. "What's our goal for tonight? What are we trying to accomplish?"

"Before we start doing anything big," Neville stepped forward. "we need to get new members."

"But to get new members, we need people to believe in Harry. And not just Harry. We need them to believe in Ron and Hermione as well, and the entire Order of the Phoenix." Ernie said.

"So we want to get new members, but before we can do that, we need to get everyone to believe in Harry, Ron, Hermione and the Order." Neville nodded as he mulled this over. He turned and faced everyone else in the room and asked, "What're some good reasons why people _don't_ believe in Harry?"

"Because of the Daily Prophet." Susan said.

"Because they don't know him." Ginny said.

"Because they don't know about all of the things he's done before." Romilda added.

"Because they're scared of the Carrows." Colin said.

"Because they're younger students who've never met him."

"Because they're prats!"

"Because they don't know what Harry's doing right now. They don't know if he's out there hiding, or if he's out there trying to save us."

"Because they've never heard the hilarious things he says to Trelawney in Divination." Seamus smirked. "Or the things he and Ron say about Snape. If being the Chosen One doesn't work out for him, he could probably be a comedian."

"These are all excellent points - even yours, Seamus." Neville said. He hastily added, "No offense."

"None taken, you self-sacrificing git." Seamus grinned.

"So the big problems here are the Daily Prophet, people not knowing him or the things he's done in the past, prats - I think they fall under the Slytherin category, people not knowing what Harry is doing, and people not knowing what a smart-ass Harry is." Ernie summed it up. "Now it seems to me if we fix these problems, people will start believing in Harry more. It would be helpful if we had a chalkboard..."

The room heard him say this and conjured up a blackboard at the front of the room, right by Ernie. A few people jumped back in surprise when it suddenly appeared, but most almost expected it to happen. Ernie grabbed a piece of choke and wrote on the board:

**Dumbledore's Army: new mission**

**Get people to believe in Harry**

**To gain new recruits and take back what is rightfully ours - Hogwarts**

**Problems:**

**The Daily Prophet's slander**

**People not knowing who Harry is as a person/the things he's done in the past**

**Prats/Slytherins**

**No news of Harry**

**People (mostly first-years who've never met him) not knowing what a flippant, sarcastic git Harry can be ("and that's why we love him," Ginny adds)**

"So," Ernie wiped his chalky fingers on his pants, something that caused everyone in the room to nearly drop dead in shock. Ernie Macmillan _wiped his hands on his pants._ Pompous, dignified Ernie Macmillan. "How are we going to tackle these problems?"

"As for the Daily Prophet's slander, I don't think there is much of anything we can do about that." Luna said sweetly from where she sat on the floor, her wide eyes staring off into space. "However, we can fight fire with fire. My daddy is the editor of the _Quibbler_ and I'm sure he'd be delighted to print stories about how the _Daily Prophet_ is lying, and Harry, Ron and Hermione being heroes. That would be taking care of the _Daily Prophet_ problem as well as the 'no news of Harry' problem. We'd be killing two flobberworms with one wand, really."

"Luna, you're brilliant!" Ernie exclaimed. "I could kiss you!"

Luna smiled dreamily back at him. Neville looked like he was going to cartwheel around the room. Terry and Michael high-fived, along with Romilda and Susan and Hannah and Colin and just about everyone else in the room. Ernie grabbed the chalk again and wrote:

**The Quibbler print stories about Harry, Ron and Hermione being heroes & the Daily Prophet being unreliable**

**Takes care of 'no news of Harry' as well as the slander problem**

"But how is the _Quibbler _going to find news about Harry?" Neville asked warily, trying not to step on Luna's feelings. "I mean, um, it would have to be _real_ news, nothing made-up." He then added, "Not saying the _Quibbler _lies! I'm just saying, you know, it would have to be the truth."

"Oh, that's easy!" Ginny smiled. "Whoever writes for the _Quibbler_ can just listen to _Potterwatch._"

"_Potterwatch?" _They all asked at once.

"Its this radio show Fred, George and Lee Jordan started. Its amazing! They broadcast news about what's been going on in the war: what the Order's been up to, how many Death Eaters Kingsley Shacklebolt's been taking down - stuff like that. If anything happens with Harry, Ron and Hermione - if they go out in public or they're seen doing something major - Fred and George'll probably be the first ones to know." Ginny explained.

"That's brilliant!" Neville practically yelled. "When is the next time they'll be doing it? Maybe we can find a way to broadcast it in the Great Hall during dinner!"

Everyone cheered in excitement.

"Tomorrow night at 6:30. It'll be the same time as dinner!" Ginny grinned. "This is perfect! But how are we going to make it so the entire Great Hall can hear?"

"I have an old radio in my trunk upstairs." Terry said. "I can bring it down to dinner, somehow, and we can charm the candles so the sound will come out of them, like hundreds of little speakers. I've seen Luna's charmwork before, and I'd say she's fully capable of doing something like that."

"Could you do that, Luna?" Ernie asked.

"Oh, yes, I could do that." Luna smiled. "It shan't be too hard. I'll need to borrow your radio for tonight to put the charms on it. I'll stay up until morning to get it done, if I have to!"

Ernie found it relieving to be around Luna these days. She was always the opposite of everyone else. While most people were stressed about the war, worried about the Carrows and terrified of being their next hex-guinea-pig, Luna was always so calm and optimistic. It was like those big eyes of hers could see the sunshine even during these stormy times.

"So that should help spread news about Harry, too." Ernie said. He wrote on the board:

**Broadcast **_**Potterwatch **_**in the Great Hall during dinner**

"Now what about the other problems? About people not knowing who Harry is?" Michael asked.

"And the brave things he's done before?" Colin piped up. "Like the basalisk-slaying!"

"And his smart-ass remarks in Divination." Terry said, speaking up for the first time, surprising everyone. It appeared that he was finally getting over what happened in Muggle Studies. "We can't forget about those."

"No, we can't!" Seamus agreed.

"Don't worry, gentlemen." After seeing Padma, Parvati, Ginny, Romilda, Hannah, Susan and Romilda's scowls, he quickly added, "And ladies."

"Why?" Seamus asked. "Do you have some plans?"

"No," Ernie shook his head. "But I have the feeling if we stay up all night, we can come up with some. It wouldn't be fair if Luna's working all night and we're not. So who feels like having a sleepover?"


End file.
